[at-l] GPS question

[hudsom at us.ibm.com (Mark Hudson)]

I did a solo bushwhack hike up in the Catskills yesterday. Took a compass
bearing from the parking spot. Didn't sweat the details on the bearing
since I was heading for a peak, I figured that my various wanderings off
bearing would cancel each other out, and that if I was still going uphill I
was doing OK <g>. Missed the summit by 50 yards or so, no big deal. Walked
right up to the summit register, I do seem to have good luck with that
part...
Hazy weather at that point, and no views. Took a short break and got my
blood sugar back up, then reversed my bearing and headed down. No, I did
not follow my original route, remember the 50 yard error? And "Leave No
Trace"? But I did pay a bit more attention to the bearing, since there's
more that one way DOWN a mountain. (Um, let me rephrase that a little: the
mountain only has one top to get to, but there's lots of bottom that you
can come out at...)  At some point I must have crossed my original path,
because I ended up fifty yards off in the other direction. OTOH, since I
found both the summit and the car I could claim that there was no error at
all. <g>
I don't claim to be an expert with a map and compass, but they seem to work
for me. I've always maintained that when you go into the shop to buy a GPS
they should drop a map and compass on the counter; if you can't align the
map and compass and explain how things work, you don't get the GPS...
Gee Mags, don't you know that if your GPS dies on you that you can use your
C**L P***E to call for help??? <lol>

skeeter